(ANSA-AFP) - MOSCOW, AUG 31 - Mikhail Gorbachev, the last
leader of the Soviet Union, has died in Moscow aged 91, Russian
news agencies reported on Tuesday. "Mikhail Sergeyevich
Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,"
the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said, quoted by the
Interfax, TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies. Gorbachev, who was
in power between 1985 and 1991 and helped bring US-Soviet
relations out of a deep freeze, was the last surviving Cold War
leader. He spent much of the past two decades on the political
periphery, intermittently calling for the Kremlin and the White
House to mend ties as tensions soared to Cold War levels since
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched an offensive in
Ukraine earlier this year. His relationship with President
Vladimir Putin was difficult at times, but the Russian leader
nonetheless expressed his "deep sympathies" after Gorbachev's
death. "In the morning (Putin) will send a telegram of
condolences to his family and friends," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told Russian news agencies. Gorbachev spent the twilight
years of his life in and out of hospital with increasingly
fragile health and observed self-quarantine during the pandemic
as a precaution against the coronavirus. Gorbachev was regarded
fondly in the West, where he was affectionately referred to by
the nickname Gorby and best known for defusing US-Soviet nuclear
tensions in the 1980s as well as bringing Eastern Europe out
from behind the Iron Curtain. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990
for negotiating a historic nuclear arms pact with US leader
Ronald Reagan and his decision to withhold the Soviet army when
the Berlin Wall fell a year earlier was seen as key to
preserving Cold War peace. He was also championed in the West
for spearheading reforms to achieve transparency and greater
public discussion that hastened the breakup of the Soviet
empire. European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen praised
Gorbachev as a "trusted and respected leader" after the news of
his death broke. "He played a crucial role to end the Cold War
and bring down the Iron Curtain. It opened the way for a free
Europe. This legacy is one we will not forget," she said on
Twitter. - Strained Putin ties - The first Russian leader to
live past the age of 90, he was congratulated by world leaders,
including US President Joe Biden and former German chancellor
Angela Merkel on his 90th birthday. At home, Gorbachev remained
a controversial figure and had a difficult relationship with
Putin. For Putin and many Russians, the breakup of the Soviet
Union was a tragedy, bringing with it a decade of mass poverty
and a weakening of Russia's stature on the global stage. Many
Russians still look back fondly to the Soviet period, and Putin
leans on its achievements to buttress Russia's claim to
greatness and his own prestige. As the USSR collapsed, Gorbachev
was superseded by the younger Boris Yeltsin, who became
post-Soviet Russia's first president. From then on, Gorbachev
was relegated to the sidelines devoting himself to educational
and humanitarian projects. He made a disastrous attempt to
return to politics and ran for president in 1996 but received
just 0.5 percent of the vote. Over the years he saw many of his
major achievements rolled back by Putin. An early supporter of
Russia's leading independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, founded in
1993, he donated part of his Nobel winnings to help it buy its
first computers. But the newspaper, like Russian independent
media across the board, came under increasing pressure during
Putin's two-decade reign. (ANSA-AFP).
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